I Am So Popular: Break Up Camp For Big Girls
Austin Woman’s Club, "Historic Downtown Austin Assets" Among Preservation Texas' Most Endangered Places 2010
Giveaway: Justin Townes Earle @ Stubb's
![_Heat Things Up With <em>Desire</em> at the Blanton [Art Preview]](http://austinist.com/assets_c/2010/02/minter-thumb-110x110-478584.jpg)
Heat Things Up With Desire at the Blanton [Art Preview]
Excellent Show Alert: Bowerbirds & Julie Doiron at Mohawk
Saturday, November 21 - Sunday, November 22
Various Venues (Austin)
Free, Saturday and Sunday 10am-5pm
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What first sparked your interest in paper arts and the letterpress?
For Brad it was Chicago rock album art and posters (Shellac, Tortoise, June of 44, etc.) For me it was a love affair with screen printing in college, which then led me to a B.F.A. with a concentration in printmaking. We started letterpress when we were both living in Chicago and found our first press, a tabletop Hohner, on Ebay.
When talking custom designs, the possibilities seem endless. Have any of your own designs surprised you?
There are restrictions when talking letterpress that can be challenging. Certain things like halftones, large solids, photographs for example are not conducive to the letterpress process. So we do have parameters. But when a design turns out to be a good collaboration with the client and the printed pieces elicit guests to respond that they can’t wait to attend an event - that is the best. Brad still likes the moment when an idea goes from a sketch or proofs to the first piece pulled from the press and how genuinely great letterpress looks.
What do you love most about working in this medium?
It's slow and meticulous and takes a good amount of skill to do well.
What do you say to people who believe that paper is becoming irrelevant to the digital age? What can we learn from preserving, and growing with the art forms you’re keeping alive?
Digital is more convenient, but that only makes paper all the more special. Humans are multifaceted and can’t exist in a vacuum of virtual reality. The first thing anyone does when they see a letterpress printed piece is to touch it. It’s automatic. It’s also evident in the “handmade nation” surge, with people going for very tactile things like knitting, needlework, jewelry making, cooking etc.with gusto. There is something innate in the need to make things.
How do paper arts serve to connect us with our history and propel us forward?
It’s a continuation of history to work with paper but also a recycling of the old to use in a new way. We have foregone setting lead type in favor of polymer plates made digitally which open a range of image and type options. Reaching back as you move forward.
Anything you can tell us about your new line of stationary currently in production, or do we have to stay in anticipation a little longer?
We’re actually offering an exciting new line of print-your-own holiday cards at EAST! For 5 bucks anyone can chose from 1 of 4 designs to print her/himself on our Challenge press. We provide paper, envelopes, plates and ink. You provide the strong arms to run the press!
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